Why Is the Electron Charge Quantized?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The question of why the electron has a negative charge that exactly matches the positive charge on a proton is still a mystery. There are anomalies in gauge symmetries of particle physics that seem to give you relationships between the charges of different particles. That is something that we don't have the once and for all final answer for.

Welcome to the October 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number — based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good — and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.